


yellow

by slytheriz



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Baekhyun is bad at feelings, Bottom Park Chanyeol, College AU, M/M, Smut, Top Byun Baekhyun, life's too short, they actually switch, this is actually a gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 02:27:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17479481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytheriz/pseuds/slytheriz
Summary: [dumb intro by coldplay playing in the background] and it was all yellow





	yellow

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday to my best friend. here's the fuckboi au to the fuckboiest of them all
> 
> (btw i didnt proofread this life IS too short)

Baekhyun sees things in two colors, usually. Red and blue. These are the colors he sees ever since he was born, and everything else is some sort of a grey scale from then on. He sees the sky clearer as everyone else, as he does blood. The colors that are assigned to those things by everyone else on earth, he sees.  
Flowers and trees and branches are red to his eyes. Things which the origins are in nature are always blue, for whatever reason, and he still can’t pinpoint why.  
Baekhyun doesn’t really know why he sees the world like this, but he does. It’s not something he can explain.  
“In a world, somethings are hard to fathom.” His grandmother told him once, when he was little, holding his hands between hers and looking deeply into his eyes. Her eyes were red like two huge rubis staring right at him. “Colors for you are different, but we bleed just the same. We love just the same. Someday, someone will come into your life, and you will see the rainbow, my love.” She smiles at him with a kindness Baekhyun never experienced anywhere else. A kindness she had in her bones that used to shine through and make her skin glitter like a pearl. He felt like crying, but he didn’t know why.  
Someday, she told him, and these words are the ones he hears everytime he sleeps, the ones on his mind everytime he goes to bed and wakes up with his forehead soaking wet, sweat dripping down his face as does his tears. “Someday, you will find love… And then, my sweet boy, you will see.”

Words become obsolete with time, their petals fall off somehow and wither, and Baekhyun carries himself different in the colors that he sees.  
He categorizes people that are good to sleep with in flaming red, because he feels like that colors carry a power he can’t exactly explain, but they burn inside his stomach with desire and an attraction. He sees red when he looks into the mirror. Anyone who reminds him of fire, that’s the one he will sleep with on the spot.  
People he doesn’t trust and carry themselves in a way Baekhyun cannot approve, those he sees in blue. Don’t ask him why, but blue is the color of ice. It’s the color of water, the color of things that are opposed to who he is.  
Baekhyun is a Taurus and also a Monkey in the chinese zodiac, so he screams earth all around. He cannot go with the ones in blue.  
There are also, of course, those that fall into the grey. Such scale symbolizes his favorite color, simply because they are so rare for Baekhyun to see. Anything that falls into that scale, falls in a place Baekhyun cannot comprehend, because he didn’t have as many opportunities in life to see beyond red and blue.  
So he leaves at that, and promises himself he will know the scale of grey. He wonders if he will ever know what white and black are like, and if he will tell them apart as everyone else does.

“How do you tell the difference between the colors you paint?” Jongdae asks him one afternoon, visiting Baekhyun in the university’s art room, a canvas standing between both of them.  
“I just color as I see it. What do you see?” Baekhyun inquires, eyeing his best friend with a certain amount of curiosity. His friends gets up from the chair he’s sitting lazily, and stands next to Baekhyun, eyeing the canvas with care.  
Jongdae was his first person he met in college, in the first day of class. Similarly to him, Jongdae was also one of those people who were hated in the music department. He was ridiculously talented and good looking, and unlike everyone else in their class, both of them had only trained for a short while before joining college as their top students - especially with full scholarships and constant praises from the teachers. Baekhyun also had just started taking lessons in painting, so he decided to try it out as a minor just for the sake of it, and Jongdae had only seen two of his painting, to which he reacted: “you’re so weird, Baekhyun. Why are we friends again?” and Baekhyun just loves it about him. How they are both silly and blunt to each other, and how they can share the enormous burden of their unlimited talent while watching their colleagues with pity in their eyes. Hey, it is not easy to be envied, ok?  
“I see… Red roses in a white vase. What do you see?” Jongdae asks him coolly, since he knows this is somehow a sensitive topic to him.  
“It’s all blue to me, but in different shades.” He answers, putting the paintbrush down and eyeing the dark, navy blue he uses to paint the flowers in the red of Jongdae’s eyes.  
Jongdae shrugs, seemingly nonchalant about it. Baekhyun is often so thankful.  
“Cool. It looks good.” He goes back to the chair he was sitting on and crosses his arms in front of him. “But I’m bored. Can’t you just finish it quickly so we can go the party already?”  
“No? Oh, my God? It doesn’t work like that. I have to shower. I will stink and then I won’t have sex and I will be pissed because I will feel sad and unwanted and you will have to deal with that.” Baekhyun tells him, giving his tongue in a childish act, and Jongdae laughs. “We don’t want to remember how it went last time.”  
“Don’t be an asshole.” He gets up again, and slaps Baekhyun’s forehead slightly as he heads to the door. “I’ll wait for you. Don’t be long.”  
“I will now!” Baekhyun screams behind him, and Jongdae just gives him the finger before he disappears through the door.

And Baekhyun wishes he wasn’t as chaotic as he was, seriously. Because here’s the deal: ever since he was a kid, he was upbeat. He was someone with a bright personality and a sassy one as well, as everyone else around him used to call him. So yeah, sometimes he just does things to piss everyone off. He speaks louder than he should and he laughs even louder when he realises it. So what? He needs to have some fun every now and then.  
So of course he shows up in the apartment he shares with Jongdae three hours later, to which Jongdae is pissed, but Baekhyun isn’t entirely the devil (often…), so he bring him his favorite beer and shoves it on his face before his best friend starts complaining.  
“I will get ready and you get drunk, ok? Taxi’s on me, babe.”  
And then Baekhyun goes to the part he absolutely love before parties: getting ready. He takes his sweet time in the shower bathing in his favorite soap that smells like jasmine, then he proceeds to moisturizing his whole body with a lotion that smells like vanilla, and then he takes care of his face with some skincare products while he chooses his outfit: often something tight and nice that is easy to put on and easier to pull out, and can you blame him for wanting to look pretty? Can you blame him for wanting to look hot so he can get laid tonight?  
After another hour and half, he’s already out of the shower, phone in hand.  
“Let’s go down, taxi’s arriving soon!” He screams to Jongdae, who was already drinking what was seemingly his fifth beer. “Already drunk enough?”  
Jongdae doesn’t answer, just shoves Baekhyun to the door so they can leave faster.

Half an hour later and his ears already bleeding with all the talk a very drunk Jongdae was having with the taxi driver about their favorite singers from four decades ago - and Jongdae showing off his skills to the taxi driver with a trot song and the driver almost breaking down in tears - they arrive at the party.  
And Baekhyun never really thought about it that way, but he always craved cliches like no one other. Probably because of his condition, the way he saw things was always so influenced, so dramatic… Can you truly hold it against him that he loves to be a cliche? He loves to be the extrovert kid who is popular and loved by everyone, but also lowkey a fuckboy, lowkey an artist passionate about parties, alcohol and drugs?  
Can you truly hold it against him when he does body shots off of cute boys’ abs and has already kissed five people tonight without even saying a single word?  
He loves it, the thrill of the alcohol making his blood pump. He loves seeing everything burn in the red of flames, loves to see the world around him in a burning scarlet, loves fire and loves to see it burn.  
So it takes him a while. It takes him some hours later between the foggy eyes of tequila shots and the dilated pupils of just one line of cocaine for him to realise, standing in the balcony of a rich frat boy’s house, and staring at huge trees and seeing nothing but blue for a second, his eyes hurting a little bit from the sudden change of fire to an abrupt slash of water thrown all over his head.  
It takes Baekhyun a while to look to the side and smell the cigarette before he sees it. Sees the blurry shadows with the corners of his eyes and he can almost smell the water in the air, can almost see the atoms in the colors that start to form in front of his eyes. He sees the figure of grey and he cannot breathe.  
“Hey?” It says, and Baekhyun realises it’s a boy. He notices so for the low tone of his voice, for the way his long legs are just crossed in front of him. He has a blue guitar in his hands, and Baekhyun doesn’t know if he’s blue. He sees the grey in the boy’s hair, the grey in the boy’s eyes, his flaming red clothes.  
He sees grey all around and he feels stupidly like that one Halsey song, and he hates himself for the thought.  
“Hi.” Baekhyun answers, and he takes one step forward towards the boy, his expression probably frozen in something that should feel slightly like awe. A little bit scary too. And scared. As he feels. “I’m Baekhyun.” He says, and he knows he’s being really forward right now. He will blame it on the alcohol though. It’s what he always does.  
“My name is Chanyeol.” The boy says, and offers him a smile. “Are you lost?”  
“Why do you say that?” Baekhyun asks with a pout, and the boy giggles a litte.  
Baekhyun makes it his job that cute boys like him, who look grey in a world he only sees in either red or blue, smile. And feel attracted to him as well, and he hopes he still smells like vanilla when he takes one more step closer to the Chanyeol.  
“Because this is the balcony to Junmyeon’s room and he never lets anyone inside.” He answer, his voice is so low and nice to his ears that Baekhyun just wants to make him talk for a while. Alcohol makes him softer and hornier, so this is just getting him in ten different moods right now. “So… you either lost, or you’re banging him.”  
Baekhyun arches an eyebrow, thinking hard about that observation. He’s pretty sure he’s heard the name Junmyeon before, but he doesn’t remember where, and he can’t really have an advantage to that situation.  
“Which one do you think it is?” Baekhyun asks, eyeing him from where he is, and he feels powerful like that. The only thing taller than him now are the trees that cast a huge, darker shadow on the yard down low, and maybe the stars in the sky, but that’s a gay observation Baekhyun is not on the mood to make. In this position, he’s standing and Chanyeol is sitting down, looking up at him, and it is right there that Baekhyun sees that his eyes are a very dark shade of grey, a little bit of red burning dimly in the middle. Or maybe that’s what Baekhyun’s eyes want to see right now. Because red would mean desire, and Baekhyun wishes Chanyeol’s eyes were reflecting his own.  
“The latter.” Chanyeol says, a smile still playful on his lips. “I surely hope so.”  
“Don’t want him to bang me?” Baekhyun is just scanning him now for a reaction, and Chanyeol’s cheeks get a tad bit greyer at that.  
“Hope he isn’t. He has a boyfriend, you see.” And he shrugs, like that answers everything.  
“Should that be an obstacle?” Baekhyun doesn’t know if he’s flirting by now or just being an asshole. Usually, he really cannot tell.  
Chanyeol is the one to look at him with an inquiring expression now, both of his eyebrows arched in an expression of disbelief.  
“Would you do it?”  
“You see, rather do someone who’s single.” He states, knowing that his eyes are definitely telling Chanyeol everything he isn’t right now.  
And that’s the thing. Baekhyun will never say, especially if you ask. It’s not his way to do it, but he also doesn’t know why he’s so attracted to that situation. To a boy with messy, grey hair and long legs and big grey eyes. Is it the colors that he can hardly ever see pulling Baekhyun in? Is it the alcohol or the chilly night that just makes him want to sit on that boy’s lap and kiss him senseless until he’s begging for something else, something more?  
He really can’t tell, so he really wishes he had another drink. He wishes he did so he would ask it while taking a sip, asking a question Chanyeol is waiting for him to ask, because these situations in life come in a script, and you know what to ask, you know what to answer, you know what you want to hear. So you say it. And Baekhyun says it without the props, without the costume, without the proper lighting and with no one else but them on a stage.  
“Are you single?”  
And Chanyeol doesn’t have a line, and Baekhyun knows he doesn’t. He knows it when Chanyeol puts the guitar aside that he doesn’t have to say anythingITso Baekhyun takes that cue to sit on his lap.  
It startles Chanyeol a bit, and he almost jumps with the surprise.  
“Is this okay?” Baekhyun asks, pouting again. “I’m cold.”  
“Is that all you are, now?” Chanyeol replies, eyebrows arched once again.  
Baekhyun shakes his head. Chanyeol smiles.  
“It’s okay.” He says.  
And Baekhyun kisses him. It’s simple and it’s as easy as anyone else else, and Chanyeol kisses back. When Baekhyun closes his eyes, relaxing into the kiss, finding his pace while Chanyeol gently touches his back with one hand and his neck with the other, Baekhyun sees red. Chanyeol kisses him deeply and wantingly, and Baekhyun sees red.  
And he loves it. He loves it when Chanyeol just lets go of that calvary and goes rougher into it, loves the feeling of Chanyeol’s big hands sliding up and down his legs and he moans into the kiss. Loves it, especially, how Chanyeol seems to want to be so dominant and Baekhyun laughs at that.  
“Why are you laughing?” He asks, a little bit startled and scared, his eyes seeming so much bigger and funny. He looks like a huge, scared and lost dog who got surprised by a smaller one biting his tail. It’s cute. Baekhyun laughs even harder into Chanyeol’s mouth.  
“You’re trying to dominate me, aren’t you?”  
Chanyeol goes back a little, looking puzzled.  
“Isn’t… isn’t that what you want? Got a vibe from you.”  
Baekhyun just smiles at him, and he loves how Chanyeol’s eyes can get even bigger with the surprise.  
Honestly, he looks quite scared a little bit. Baekhyun knows he’s probably smiling that very specific smile of his: the one that he looks dangerous. That he looks obstinate. That one looks he gets when he’s hunting down cute boys, and he is all for the killing tonight.  
“Oh, sugar. You sweet, sweet boy.” Baekhyun’s smile somehow grows even bigger, and he knows he’s all teeth now. He knows his eyes are burning red, because he feels it. Feels the fire that’s inside Earth and he knows he’s coming through right now, and Chanyeol feels it too.  
Baekhyun kisses the corner of Chanyeol’s mouth, his left hand caressing behind Chanyeol’s ear, his fingers tangling a lock of the other boy’s hair.  
“Let’s go inside.”  
Chanyeol nods, obeying, and they move towards the room, removing their clothes while they do it. When Baekhyun takes a second and looks behind him, he sees one of his shoes next to the window, the other thrown at the other side of the room, his shirt lost just behind him. Chanyeol is removing his pants when Baekhyun comes behind him and throws him on the bed.  
The only thing Baekhyun didn’t realise about Chanyeol was just how long he was. He was so tall and his legs and arms were so long that Baekhyun felt so oddly small and little.  
“How tall are you?” Baekhyun asks, pulling Chanyeol’s pants down and being greeted by a bulge in his underwear. Nice.  
“One hundred and eighty five.” He answers, putting one hand behind his head and making his muscles flex. Baekhyun rolls his eyes, but still compliments him.  
“That’s hot. How big is your dick, though?” And Chanyeol chokes a little. “Let’s find out, shall we?”  
Baekhyun smiles devilish at Chanyeol as he pulls his pants down.  
“How do you want this, big boy?”  
“You’re really weird, you know that?” Chanyeol asks him instead of answering, and Baekhyun nods.  
“Yeah. Do you want me to suck you off and you come or does your friend have lube and condoms so you can ride me?”  
Baekhyun is so used to saying these things unfazed that he just ignores Chanyeol’s reaction, which is: Chanyeol choking again, then getting up to stare at Baekhyun a little scared, to Chanyeol getting up and searching the drawer next to the biggest king size bed he’s ever seen. Whoever owned this room - this Junmyeon guy - was well off. If Baekhyun tried to fit this bed into his own room, he would never be able to open his wardrobe.  
“There are only condoms.” Chanyeol says, throwing three of them on the bed.  
“Well, let me give you the blowjob of your life.” Baekhyun says, taking Chanyeol’s dick into his hands as he began to work him harder.  
So this is what happens: Baekhyun really enjoyed Chanyeol. He was responsive and sensitive and Baekhyun kept teasing him and he was so easy to order around. He looked so nice with his head thrown back and gripping Baekhyun’s hair begging for release, and the annoyed and sad sounds he made when Baekhyun stopped sucking him off altogether to go up and suck his nipples and pinch his inner thighs and kiss him harder only to go back down and just blow wind into the tip of Chanyeol’s dick, causing him to shake all over… That was enough for Baekhyun to almost not be able to not come himself.  
He tooks his sweet, sweet time until he couldn’t handle his own erection anymore, jerking off as he went deeper and deeper with Chanyeol inside his throat, ordering him to come.  
Baekhyun only has a few seconds to look up with his eyes blurry with the tears of pleasure he was holding back, and he comes at the same time Chanyeol does, both of them riding out their orgasms.  
It takes a couple of minutes for both of them to move, Chanyeol getting up and disappearing in the bathroom, coming back with a wet towel to clean both of them up.  
“So…” He begins saying, and Baekhyun gets up to where he was lying, all fucked out, to fetch his clothes.  
“Yeah?” He asks, zipping his pants up and already looking for the shoes.  
“I’ll see you around?”  
Baekhyun looks at up at Chanyeol’s hopeful voice, his big, doey eyes two big balls of hope.  
Baekhyun feels kind of bad this isn’t what he does. The “see you around” thing. The “I’ll see you later”. Not the “I’ll see you around” ever. But he can’t help but to wan to see this boy again. To see grey one more time.  
So he just smiles at him, hopes it is an answer. He smiles and moves forward to kiss Chanyeol one more time before he walks through the door, back to the sweaty bodies of the party, to the alcohol, to his drunk best friend.  
He walks through the door and kind of hopes he will see him again. He could use another color.

“What the fuck is that?” Jongdae asks him a week later, when both of them are just chilling on a saturday night in their apartment, and Baekhyun decided it would be nice to paint something new.  
“It’s a painting, what the fuck do you think it is?” He looks angrily at his eledgely best friend, and Jongdae just laughs it out.  
“I don’t know, it looks kind of angry? And out of figure? Are those… eyes?” He asks, pointing to two balls in the middle of the canvas, Baekhyun holding the paintbrush with too much strength that his fingertips are turning white.  
“Fuck you!” Baekhyun screams at him, and stabs Jongdae’s arms with paint.  
Jongdae just laughs at him, unbothered by that. To be quite honest, that was actually pretty frequent. Jongdae annoying him when Baekhyun paints, Baekhyun screaming at him or throwing paint at his skin (or clothes… he was feeling especially annoyed once). This time, both.  
“Relax. So… I was meant to ask you something.” Jongdae says, his voice too smooth for Baekhyun’s liking.  
“No. We will not do a threesome with that weird friend of yours.”  
“Listen, asshole, that was one time and Sehun is dating now. So… no.” He rolls his eyes and sits down on the ground next to Baekhyun, looking up at him with kind eyes out of a sudden.  
“Oh, my God. What the fuck with those eyes. What the fuck, Jongdae. Bro.” Baekhyun is honestly feeling so weirded out, this is literally not them.  
“Gross? Don’t call me bro? That’s literally so gross, man.” Jongdae makes a show out of faking that he is shivering and shaking off the word, and Baekhyun rolls his eyes before Jongdae goes back to his weirdly soft mode and continues: “So… like. Hmmm… I have a friend. And this friend is really nice, and cute. And he has a friend that said he hooked up with this guy in that party we went to last week…” Baekhyun already knows where this is heading and he is bored.  
“Spill it already.”  
“You’re an asshole. So, cute guy I want to bang is friends with the guy you fucked last week and said guy wants your number.” Jongdae spits it at him all at once, crossing his arms in front of his chest and laying back against the wall.  
“And?” Baekhyun asks, but he knows he is sounding like a total dickhead by this point. Jongdae knows him too, and he just shrugs.  
“I said I’d talk to you because you don’t appreciate people giving your number away to strangers. But… Like… Don’t get in the way of me fucking this one. He’s really hot and cute.”  
“What’s his name so I fuck him first?” Baekhyun knows he deserves the kick he gets, but he feels offended just the same.  
“Look, if you want to be the friend that cockblocks, that’s on you. Don’t ever ask me for help ever again or I’ll end you.” Jongdae says, in a not-at-all menacing way. Truth be told, Jongdae couldn’t look scary for the life of him.  
“Oh? Then what the fuck are you gonna do, my sweet little bear? Stab me in my sleep with a plastic knife?” Baekhyun replies as he rolls his eyes and diverts his attention back to the painting.  
Jongdae just snorts and leaves Baekhyun alone, and he knows his best friend is not actually mad, just a tiny bit upset about a recurring boner that won’t be taken care of. But hey, it’s not Baekhyun’s fault Jongdae’s too cute and people usually want to befriend him rather to sit on his dick. And if he needs to get a phone number so that guy does bone him, then they’re both dumb. Deal with it your own way, my friend, Baekhyun thinks.  
But as he eyes his painting, the canvas with no color on the sides and just a lot of red in two big dots that actually do resemble eyes, Baekhyun can’t help but to think that maybe he wouldn’t really mind some not so innocent texting. So he leaves it at that.

“Baekhyun!” He hears someone scream informally behind him as he makes his way down the hall, on his way to his most important vocal class. Last week, his teacher commented on him becoming off pitch in a higher note than he was used to, for the first time in the last two and half years. It made him feel terribly insecure, and he didn’t really appreciate his classmates looking at him funny. Like when untalented people who think they are talented look at actual talented people with mocking eyes as if when they slip one time it will somehow grant them a big coming through and they will rise in their places. Like, sweetie, no. Please, Susan Kim from Canada, you are not taking my spot as main vocal in the spring musical.  
Baekhyun turns around and sees a freshman he didn’t really know well, but admired nonetheless. His name was Kim Jongin and he was in the musical as one of the lead dancers. Apparently, he had helped with the choreography and the teachers were so mesmerized by him that he got to actually dance - things that freshman don’t usually do in the spring musical.  
“Hi… Jongin, is it?” Baekhyun asks, offering him a smile. He won’t deny it though, that boy was as cute as you could get. And a dancer? Oh, lord. Muscles for days. Bring definition into the table and you get 1080p in full HD on that one.  
“Yeah! I just wanted to ask you if you’ve seen Jongdae. He’s supposed to meet me in the next period so I can help him with some dance moves for his part?” He says it a question and Baekhyun just shrugs.  
“Probably trying to help an old woman cross the street, Jongin. Don’t worry, he’s not one to be late.”  
“Oh! Okay! Thank you, hyung.” He says, blushing a little bit. “I think you don’t remember, but we danced together at that party the other day. You were really fun. And… you dance really well…”  
Baekhyun brings his hand to touch the other boy’s face lightly, caressing it just above his cheek.  
“You are sweet. I’ll see you around, hopefully.” He tells Jongin and winks at him, leaving him a little more flustered than before.  
Quite frankly, he wasn’t really Baekhyun’s type. He prefer taller boys who were really sweet that Baekhyun felt like destroying their lives and asses in bed, but something told him that Jongin was more of the kinder type that would make Baekhyun feel really uncomfortable about ruining. So… No, thank you.  
Also, he needed to rush to class and focus on the warm up. He couldn’t and wouldn’t allow himself anything less than perfection, and that’s exactly what he had to deliver.  
His phone chimes in his pocket and Baekhyun fishes it out before he walks through the door, mindless about it. He sees a message from an unknown number:

Unknown  
hey… jongdae gave me your phone number  
hope it’s ok?

Holy fuck. Fuck Kim Jongdae and his fucking amazing, cute, devil ass. Oh, yes? So much about friendship. He knew Baekhyun didn’t do the whole texting after he got what he wanted. No do overs. No second times. It was his own set rule.  
Not because he’s much of a fuckboy - he… isn’t. Really, not to that level people make it seem that he is. He is just too focused on his goals in life to become an amazing artist and an even more amazing singer, so he can’t afford distractions. Like that one right now.

me:  
who is this

Unknown:  
chanyeol  
from the party?  
remember?  
i was chilling with minseok and  
he’s friends with jongdae and  
jongdae arrived? and we were  
like talking and i mentioned the  
party and you? and then jongdae  
said like oh hes my friend and  
i commented like omg hes cool  
and asked hm for your number  
he said u said it was ok?

Oh fuck. Chanyeol boy was a nervous texter. He texted a lot and seemed to go into a rant and he sent one message after the other instead of just sending one text message alone.  
Fuck, Chanyeol. Don’t be cute. Baekhyun thinks. It’ll just make it much more fun to me to be an asshole.

me:  
lmao it’s fine bro  
really

Unknown:  
oh ok… bro

me:  
don’t be weird lol  
what should i save ur name

Unknown:  
would it be weird to save it as  
handsome boy from the party

me:  
i wouldnt be as cocky as using “the’  
you see…  
i go to a lot of parties. would mix u up  
for someone else lmao

Unknown:  
so you know a lot of handsome men  
from like  
parties? oO

me:  
there’s a recurring one

Unknown:  
oh. who would that be

me:  
me.

Chanyeol took a while to type something and Baekhyun went to save his contact simply as “grey boy”. He wouldn’t need to know.

grey boy:  
HAKJSDASHDSAJKHDASKJHD  
omg  
cute.

me:  
that’s new.  
never been called cute bf

grey boy:  
don’t you like it?

me:  
idk  
gotta go to class rn ok .  
catch u later

Baekhyun felt kind of bad about just leaving him hanging like that. It wasn’t the most pleasurable thing to text someone “idk” to a very specific “do you like something” question. Rude, even. But Baekhyun did have better and more urgent things to do, and his teacher was already making his way to him. So class it is.

It wasn’t until the end of that week that Baekhyun remembered Chanyeol. To be quite honest, he didn’t really remember checking out his messages and most of the time he was on his phone, it was to call the pizza place. Which he did only once a week. The rest of time, he won’t really admit it much out loud, but he passes a considerable amount of it on his computer, playing League of Legends. And by “considerable amount”, it could be more accurately read as “literally all of the time except for school and parties”.  
He missed a test once because he had to finish a game. Not his proudest academic moment, but that’s another reason why Baekhyun doesn’t actually do phones much.  
And it is a perfect excuse for him as to why he didn’t reply to Chanyeol’s text, sent four days ago, that read:

grey boy:  
hmmm.  
do u wanna tell me over  
dinner?  
later this week?

Baekhyun types back in no shame after all those days without replying:

me:  
hmmm u asking me out?

The reply doesn’t take longer than five minutes to come:

grey boy:  
84 years later  
but yeah i am  
u up for it?

me:  
if im up for u?  
you bet ;)  
let’s do it

grey boy:  
i’m... glad  
let’s do it…  
tomorrow? 7pm?

me:  
sure. u buying?

grey boy:  
wouldnt peg u for a baby boy

me:  
thats because im not  
but we do live in a society…

grey boy:  
lol  
ok. meet me in front of the fountain  
u know  
by the entrance of the uni

me:  
sure thing, sugar babe

Quite honestly, Baekhyun thought he’d be left on read. But Chanyeol is apparently one of those people who would rather always answer not to be rude, so he just sends an :) emoji and somehow that’s scarier to Baekhyun.  
On the next, at exactly 7:02pm, Baekhyun arrives.  
Never early, but never ridiculously late either.  
Chanyeol is already there, waiting, wearing a long sweatshirt and jeans, his hair all over the place in the cutest style Baekhyun had ever seen. It looked so easy and unbothered.  
Why the fuck did he agree on that date? Baekhyun hates to think of people as cute.  
“Hi. You look nice.” Chanyeol tells him, almost shyly.  
“Are you a shy person, Chanyeol? You weren’t shy that day at the party.” Baekhyun says bluntly, arching an eyebrow and turning his head slightly to the side, analyzing Chanyeol a little bit.  
The taller boy just shrugs a little, both hands diving into the pockets of his jeans.  
“Well, no. I’m not. But you’re shameless and that’s unsettling.” He replies honestly, looking at Baekhyun with those huge eyes. He was still all grey.  
“What color is your hair supposed to be?” Baekhyun asks him completely out of a sudden, and that leaves Chanyeol a little bit unsettled once again.  
Well, what can Baekhyun do if he is chaotic. Nothing, right?  
“Grey? But… Why…?” Chanyeol looks at him weirdly, and Baekhyun just smiles.  
“Ok!” He says, linking their arms together and dragging Chanyeol with him. “Where are we going?”

They end up going to this italian restaurant just around the university, not very far away from Baekhyun and Jongdae share an apartment. It was nice and cozy and they had Baekhyun’s favorite - this green pasta with garlic and oil and parmesan. Chanyeol was easy to talk to, very nice and funny and dorky. He bumped into his chair before he sat down and Baekhyun caught himself laughing at that clumsiness. Maybe, being too big and having long arms and long legs wasn’t as easy as Baekhyun thought. But Chanyeol wore his height so well… He was very good looking, and his smile was so warm and contagious that even when Baekhyun wasn’t feeling the jokes the same way, he still smiled back at him. Smiled along.  
“So…” Chanyeol asks, twisting his past around with the fork, looking at Baekhyun with fresh curiosity. “What do you do? Like… in college?”  
“Oh? I’m a voice and acting major and I’m currently doing a minor in art. So… I sing, act and paint a lot.” Baekhyun says, taking a sip of his wine. “You?”  
“I’m in the music department. I produce a lot, mostly. But I’ve never seen you around the department though? I mean, it makes sense, since you’re friends with Jongdae. He’s an amazing singer.”  
Baekhyun nods, always so proud of his best friend.  
“Yes, he is, but I’m better.” Baekhyun is not even ashamed.  
Chanyeol laughs at that, snorting a little bit. Cute again. This is becoming too much already.  
“You’re gonna have to show me sometime.” He says and it’s so cheesy.  
They continue to chat and talk and it’s such a nice evening that Baekhyun kind of forgets this is supposed to be a date. Because he usually doesn’t do this: the whole let’s dine and see how we are together. They all stage something Baekhyun would hate to act ever in his life, the whole expectations of dating hanging in the air. But also… Baekhyun would never say no to a good, nice dinner. He is a taurus and he is driven by the sensations life can offer, and nothing says sensational as much as wine and pasta.  
“So…” Chanyeol says, scratching the back of his hair in a fake nervous way, and Baekhyun just rolls his eyes and pulls him in for a kiss.  
Chanyeol seems surprised at first, but he eases into it, taking Baekhyun’s face into his hands and deepening it, licking Baekhyun’s bottom lip and making their tongues twirl together. It takes a couple of seconds until they both become in synch, the warmth and sweetness of the wine on Chanyeol’s mouth just makes Baekhyun want to drink him whole, right there and then. They pull back for a second, taking a deep breath.  
Chanyeol looks amazing under the moonlight, the grey that surrounds him all around so dark and glimmery that Baekhyun just wants to touch it. Feel it. Lick it. Taste him.  
“Where do you live?” Baekhyun asks.  
And that’s how they end up in a taxi, unable not to touch each other in the dark. Baekhyun keeps a hand right next to Chanyeol’s crotch, and he can basically hear him screaming mentally by his side. As soon as they leave the car, they are all over the place, kissing against the door, against the wall, falling into Chanyeol’s couch.  
“Bed?” He suggests.  
“Yes, what the fuck do you think I am, an animal?” Baekhyun answers, taking his shirt off and throwing it on the floor as he follows Chanyeol to his room.  
All around are records, every single part of the walls is ornated with records and music in every physical form. He has posters and guitars carefully hanging. His bed is right next to the window at the corner, and Baekhyun wastes no time.  
Baekhyun kisses him raw and violently, their mouths crashing and their panting on each other’s lips, the overwhelming sensation of the last piece of fabric that separates making Baekhyun growl in impatience.  
Half an hour and some prep later after, Baekhyun is pinning Chanyeol’s wrists on the bed, fucking into him, hearing Chanyeol’s moans, feeling him become undone under Baekhyun’s hands and touch and aura. Feeling him whole. Baekhyun slows down and then speeds up, and that drives Chanyeol mad until he’s begging Baekhyun. And he’s always weak to a good, old “pretty please”, so he lets Chanyeol come and he comes hard right after he feels him clench around his dick, riding it out still inside of him, both of them fucked out on the bed, breathing hard and heavy.  
“Do you have any neighbors?” Baekhyun asks a couple of minutes later as he finally pulls out of Chanyeol and takes the condom out.  
“Yes.” Chanyeol answers, pointing at the door. “Could you…?”  
Baekhyun nods, noticing what he means immediately.  
“Yeap. Sure.”  
Baekhyun moves quickly to the bathroom and wets a towel before going back to the bedroom and throwing it on Chanyeol’s face.  
“There, sunshine. Where the fuck did we put my pants?” He asks, looking around the room and fetching them from behind a desk with three computers and some weird machines that Baekhyun deduces that are the things which Chanyeol uses to produce… other things.  
“You leaving already?”  
“Cute, sweet cheeks. Yes.” He says, putting on his shoes. Why is he always so messy about taking off his clothes? He should come up with an easier way to do this. “I have rehearsal in the morning, like… Six am.” He looks around again, trying to locate his shirt, but doesn’t see it anywhere. “Where’s my shirt?”  
“Living room.” Chanyeol answers, looking a little bit disappointment.  
Baekhyun smiles at him apologetically.  
“Sorry, cutie pie.” Where does he take those nicknames from and why can’t he stop using them? “I’ll see myself out, ok? See you around. This was nice.”  
He kisses Chanyeol’s cheek before he walks out as fast as he can, eager to not do the whole pillowtalk thing.  
Quite honestly, you could easily argue that this is really the typical fuckboi persona again, but this is a real sensitive topic. Baekhyun is just… not easy to open up. Why? Classic daddy issues. His dad left when he was ten, he never really knew how to deal with it, his mom got really fucked up and he hated to see her like that. He’s also really fond of being some sort of a slut, it carries a little bit of power to his freedom. Too many fish in the water, see?

And then it’s kind of downhill from that. He avoids Chanyeol for a very good reason: he’s busy. Spring musical is right around the corner and he really needs to focus on it. Chanyeol tries and texts him, but Baekhyun hardly ever responds, and when he does, it’s all really short.  
Maybe he is sabotaging that a little bit, unconsciously, but he will leave that matter to a very deceased Freud and his therapist some other time. Not now. Not when Susan still wants to take over his part and Jongdae is slacking off by having sex with Chanyeol’s friend, Minseok, and especially when Jongin is being too nice that Baekhyun just wants to choke him with his thigh (again, really, non-sexual way. Baekhyun is in no way an addict. He still knows when and to he keeps a distance). Everything is chaotic and the musical is only two weeks again - playing the lead and main vocal isn’t easy. He has lines and he dances a bit, so he’s sore everyday and his throat isn’t cooperating. He’s pretty sure he’ll come down with a flu sooner or later and he definitely does not want that.  
But he is still human and he is still twenty one, so he says yes to Jongdae’s invitation to another frat party at the same house he went to before. He finds it kind of fishy, but says yes the same way, because he could use the alcohol and distraction.  
He’s sitting by the corner when he hears a familiar voice say on a loudspeaker that resonates around the house: “hey… so… I’ll playing tonight.. any requests?”  
Some people say a couple of things and that spikes Baekhyun’s attention.  
“Really, dude? Wonderwall?” The voice says, and he recognizes it as Chanyeol. He moves forward around the small crowd that forms in the living room, everyone there to see him. Chanyeol is sitting down with a guitar in hand, and he begins with the first chords to that very familiar tune. It is surprising to him when Chanyeol begins singing: he’s a little off tune, but his voice is sweet and low and scratchy in the most pleasing way. He easily falls into it, and Chanyeol is a good player. People start requesting other songs and Baekhyun is still there, beer starting to get warmer in his hand. He doesn’t know how long he stays there, but he sees Chanyeol go from Wonderwall to a rock and roll song Baekhyun doesn’t know to a more pop song to a cover of SNSD’s Gee (that actually sounds really good and everyone is laughing and singing along). Baekhyun realises with a little bit of bitterness and artist’s jealousy that he is a performer. Everyone is entertained and everyone is liking it. Chanyeol is liking it. That’s always nice to see, right?  
Chanyeol puts down the guitar and some girls come to talk to him, talking his ears off. Chanyeol smiles at them and is polite, but then Baekhyun realises he’s staring and Chanyeol is making his way exactly to where he’s standing, right at the door.  
“So…” Baekhyun says when Chanyeol is close to him, and the tall boy flinches a little in surprise. Always the scaredy cat. “Nice arrangement to Girls’ Generation you got there.”  
Chanyeol just looks at him, a little gloomy and nods in a cold way that gets Baekhyun off hand.  
“Yeah. Glad you liked it.” He nods lightly to Baekhyun’s direction, not looking at him, and walks past him without saying another word.  
Wow, rude? I mean. Yeah… Baekhyun hasn’t answered his texts, but what’s that attitude for? Is he such an asshole?  
Things get weird then. Baekhyun goes around the party to try and find Jongdae to vent out about that asshole reaction Chanyeol had and Jongdae is found laughing in the backyard, smoking weed with no one other than Chanyeol and Minseok, the gay Jongdae was fucking. There are other two boys with him: one that is very tall and slim and has broad shoulders and looks terribly like a bored model and another one that is about Baekhyun’s height, muscular and with a friendly face. He’s wearing a football jersey and Baekhyun just knows right away from the aura he’s emitting that he’s a frat boy.  
“Oh, Baekhyun!” Jongdae yells when he sees him, signaling for him to approach. The guys around them all turn at once to see him and greet him in the same cold and distant way he got from Chanyeol.  
Ok, assholes.... Like, in plural?  
So Baekhyun makes the choice of being a little bitch and stays with them, smokes weed and takes a very weird thirty minute conversation with people who clearly know who he is and seem really uncomfortable and pissed off.  
“Okay, nice talking to everyone. Jongdae, I’ll head inside and see if anyone has something to kick my ass until next spring, ok? If I don’t arrive home until noon, call the police.” He winks at him and smiles brightly at the other guys, his gaze stopping at Chanyeol for a little longer, their eyes meeting. Chanyeol looks away in the same second.  
Whatever.

It’s not until a week later of Baekhyun being really anxious about the musical and painting more and more to distract himself from the pressure, that Jongdae sits by his side with ice cream and two spoons that he can actually relax a litte.  
“Why aren’t you dying?” Baekhyun basically screams at him, shoving his spoon on the ice cream as if he was trying to dig a body out of there.  
“Because I did already being the lead in the winter musical.” And shrugs. “The guys were weird to you that day, weren’t they?”  
Baekhyun nods, shoving the ice cream inside his mouth as if it is the last he’ll ever taste.  
“Yeah. You kinda deserved that one.”  
“Geez, thanks, dude. Seriously. Not like I’m dying here. Also… I have more important things to focus on.” Baekhyun says, turning his back to Jongdae and readjusting the canvas.  
“You’re painting eyes again, aren’t you?” Jongdae says behind of him, using the spoon to point at two dots on the painting that are literally eyes.  
This time, he isn’t wrong.  
“I’m glad you can see perfectly.” Baekhyun retorts.  
Jongdae smacks him in the head.  
“Don’t be an asshole.”  
Baekhyun ignores him for the rest of the week after that.

So here’s what happens: Baekhyun actually ends up meeting Chanyeol in the hallways. It’s really weird and the latter immediately walks into the closest room he can find just to physically avoid Baekhyun, but he will take it. Too bad Chanyeol can’t be nice for two seconds.  
Then it’s the weekend of the musical and… well. Pretty sure you were expecting something big here, but it’s perfect. It’s easy, no one says “Macbeth” and fucks it up and Baekhyun’s voice never gets out of pitch. The musical is about an orphan boy coming to Seoul after he’s eighteen and discovering the world. Working and being deceived and falling in love with himself. It’s a nice play and the songs are good too. Baekhyun does it all perfectly in the opening night and in the following two. It’s amazing and fucking Susan Kim smiles at him fakely when she congratulates him for the performances. Suck it, bitch.  
And then it gets weird, because there’s nothing there. All of Baekhyun’s grades were basically invested in the musical and he has just one big test from an elective he took in art, and he’s just going to class and still painting the same things. He’s just meddling with colors and he doesn’t know what they’re supposed to look like, but they just looked too blurred for him to realise.  
Baekhyun hates it when he feels empty like this. When there’s nothing to do and he feels how existencial he feels, how lonely he is. And he craves something… A feeling, a person.  
And he keeps on painting  
There’s another party and he gets wasted again and he sees Chanyeol and tries to hit on him, but he just dismisses him and Baekhyun is so mad.  
And interested.  
He doesn’t know what gets to him, but he just needs to talk to him. To tell him something. To talk to him.  
Apologize… maybe. If he feels like he did something wrong, he will.  
And just by luck, Baekhyun sees Chanyeol walking into a soundproof booth in the same department he was passing by in a tuesday afternoon, after delivering a paper a professor had requested him.  
Baekhyun is nothing if nothing impulsive, so he sneaks into the room quickly before the door closes behind him. And if of course startles Chanyeol.  
“What the fuck?” He screams, looking at Baehyun with wide eyes.  
“Hey.” And Chanyeol just seems like he wants to kill him. “Can we talk?”  
“I’m kind of busy.” Chanyeol says, expression blank.  
Baekhyun sees a chair in the corner of the room and sits on it.  
“I’m not. What are you doing?”  
“Baekhyun… I really need to finish this song, ok? Can you maybe text me later? I’ll talk to you.” Chanyeol says, almost pleading.  
Baekhyun shakes his head, crossing his legs and relaxing back at the studio chair. It’s pretty comfortable.  
“No, you won’t.” Baekhyun tells him simply, eyeing him with obstination.  
“Why do you think that?” Chanyeol says, sitting down. He notices he cannot be defeated.  
“Because I wouldn’t, and that’s why you won’t. I get it, ok? I was absent for a bit. No hard feelings.”  
Chanyeol looks at him for a good ten seconds with a very intense gaze, his eyes look so cold and annoyed that Baekhyun actually stiffens a bit.  
Ok, not the reaction he was expecting.  
“You literally ghosted me. Can you please find some place else to be? I really need to finish this and I don’t even know how to sing, so please.”  
“You do.” Baekhyun blurts out, feeling a little bit small by his words.  
Ok. He did ghost him a little, but… But that’s who he is? Is that a good enough excuse to give someone?  
“Also… I can sing for you. I’m a voice major.”  
“I know, but… Thanks, no.” Chanyeol declines, taking huge headphones from the table and putting them on. “Excuse me.”  
Baekhyun does the one thing he can think of, and gets up from his chair and walks into the booth. Chanyeol is about to go there when Baekhyun approaches the mic.  
“Make sure it’s on, cutie pie.”  
And he sings.  
He sings a lullaby his mother loved to sing to him when he was a kid and she would arrive too late from work, Baekhyun waiting for her up and mad because she had promised they would read a bedtime story that day. A song his mother sang to him that caused him peace in his heart, with his mother soft and pleading eyes. It was a sorry lullaby, a “I know I was late and I fucked up a little”.  
Baekhyun loses himself into it, closing his eyes and singing it like he means it.  
When he finishes and opens his eyes slowly, Chanyeol is on the other side of the booth, mouth wide open and his eyes big and intense. He seems… mesmerized, to say the least.  
Baekhyun doesn’t know if it was too much of a low blow, but he will take it. His talents and gifts have to do him justice more than once.  
“So?” Baekhyun asks after a minute of silence, and Chanyeol clicks a buttom so his voice is heard.  
“Can you come outside?”  
His voice carries no emotion whatsover, and Baekhyun is honestly a little frightened. He seems… dull. Detached.  
He wasn’t expecting this. Baekhyun wasn’t expecting this.  
He didn’t really know what to expect of, but… That wasn’t it.  
So Baekhyun walks out of the booth and he feels it before he sees it, as Chanyeol makes his way to him quickly and angrily and throws him against the wall, and he’s kissing him.  
He was definitely expecting that.  
Baekhyun hardly blinks as he welcomes Chanyeol, letting him take control for once. Chanyeol’s hands are traveling all around his body as he kisses him desperately, panting against his mouth.  
“Fuck.” He hears himself say when Chanyeol rubs himself against him and roughly, and Baekhyun can already feel himself getting hard.  
“Chanyeol…” He moans, and Chanyeol gets it right away, picking him up and pinning him harder against the walls behind him, rubbing more insistently now, with will. Baekhyun grabs Chanyeol’s hair and pulls while he bites his bottom lip, too eager.  
“How we doing this?”  
“Got lube on my backpack.” Chanyeol says. “How am I doing you, you mean?”  
Baekhyun just smiles at him as Chanyeol quickly runs to his backpack and takes lube and a condom, and Baekhyun, always the pragmatic himself, takes of his pants and underwear.  
“Holy fuck.” Chanyeol says, stopping midway as he sees Baekhyun’s erection. “Fuck.”  
“Yes, I’m trying to. Let’s do this on the booth.” Baekhyun says, pulling Chanyeol by the shirt and dragging him back to the soundproof room. Very clever.  
Chanyeol lays Baekhyun down on the floor, kissing him while Baekhyun tries and pulls Chanyeol’s shirt over his head.  
“If you’re gonna fuck me, do it before I change my mind.” Baekhyun pleads, and Chanyeol obbeys.  
Chanyeol takes the lube and starts warming up Baekhyun’s hole. Despite of Baekhyun’s constant orders, he takes his time opening him up, kissing Baekhyun’s tummy, his inner thighs, sometimes taking the tip of Baekhyun’s dick into his mouth just to make him moan louder out of the unexpected sensation.  
Baekhyun chokes when Chanyeol goes in, filling him up, and it is cliché when he says that he sees stars. Chanyeol keeps kissing him eagerly, but then it’s a little softer, and Baekhyun likes it like that. Softer and slower as he thrusts inside, until he finds Baekhyun’s prostate spot on and speeds up, Baekhyun coming all over himself as Chanyeol follows.  
“Wow.” Chanyeol says after a few minutes of silence, and he gets up to get rid of the condom. He leaves to get something from outside the booth, and he comes back with wipes and Baekhyun’s clothes, throwing it on his face.  
Touché.  
“Well...” Baekhyun begins, and Chanyeol looks at him while Baekhyun dresses himself after cleaning up. “Guess I’ll start replying to your texts.”  
Chanyeol laughs at that, and this is how it begins.

It begins like that, out of loneliness and a little bit of guilt. Out of liking the cuteness of Chanyeol’s laugh and the sexy tone of his voice. Of actually enjoying meeting him for dinner and coming over to listen to his songs (that happen to be amazing). Baekhyun was helping him with it, singing a couple of things for five tracks Chanyeol had to deliver as a final grade for the hardest subject he had to take. He was nervous, and usually a nervous Chanyeol led to blowjobs in the booth or in his room. And then they had dinner and talked. Sometimes Baekhyun stayed over and slept right away, still awkward with the whole pillow talk. Other times, they just met for sex only and Baekhyun left soon after kissing Chanyeol a little longer. He rather things he doesn’t really need to say.  
Once, Baekhyun goes to a party and meets Chanyeol’s friends there. Jongdae approaches him and introduces him again “this is my asshole friend, but he’s nicer now”. They all salute him with little smiles and Baekhyun learns their names properly - Junmyeon is the frat guy dating the model one, Sehun. That was his room in which Baekhyun had sex, he learns, after commenting he found it by accident. Chanyeol laughs at that, pinching his back lightly. “And my bed.” Junmyeon comments with a smirk, and everyone laughs. Baekhyun is never shy, so he just takes that one with a good, old-fashioned yes.  
And it goes like that, until the day Baekhyun invites Chanyeol into the studio to show him a couple of paintings. The one he was working now… It was a new one. A different one, and he felt he needed to show Chanyeol it.  
“What do you see?” Baekhyun asks him, nervous. “What colors do you see?”  
“Baekhyun… why are you asking me what colors do I see?” Chanyeol asks hesitantly. “Do… do you see colors?”  
Baekhyun takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, then does it again. He doesn’t know why, but only a few people know about his condition. So he’s not used to saying it, not used to telling. He’s not embarrassed or ashamed. It’s just… his. And he doesn’t go around sharing like that.  
But yesterday he had found grey ink, the same color he saw in Chanyeol’s hair, and it made him think of something. Made him want to paint it.  
So he did. He let the paintbrush guide him and he painted. He spent hours sitting down, and once he was done, he knew he had to call Chanyeol. He knew he had to show him.  
“I have a condition. It’s not serious or anything, but I only see red and blue and, on the occasion, grey. I see everything as red and blue and I don’t know what colors are supposed to be. I know your hair is actually gray because you told me once…” He takes another deep breath and Chanyeol comes closer to him, takes Baekhyun’s hands into his. He nods softly, encouraging Baekhyun to go on. “So… Yeah. That’s basically it. And… today. Today I found this color. Grey. And it’s how I see you. So I thought… Thought I’d paint with it. What do you see, Park Chanyeol?”  
And Chanyeol looks at him, and he looks at the painting behind him. His eyes are kind and curious and careful, as if he’s looking into a very intimate part of Baekhyun he doesn’t want to pry.  
And he’s seeing it, Baekhyun guesses. Baekhyun guesses because Chanyeol’s eyes sparkle in recognition and they’re shining so brightly when he looks into deeper. He looks back at Baekhyun and Baekhyun realises he knows it there. That Baekhyun painted him as he sees him.  
“I see me, Baekhyun.” He murmurs, and Baekhyun hugs him tightly, overwhelmed by that reaction. He doesn’t want to say a word.  
Chanyeol hugs him back for a minute just as tightly, his arms then slowly becoming loose around him as his hands reach Baekhyun’s face and Chanyeol is kissing him.  
And this is different. This is a kiss that Baekhyun tastes on his tongue with something he doesn’t know what is - it tastes warm, it tastes nice, it tastes sweet. It tastes like an early summer afternoon that the rain of five o’clock had just passed by and everything is wet and hot and shiny. It tastes like sunshine and Baekhyun sees an explosion behind his eyes. He sees light in a way he hasn’t seen before and he gasps into the kiss, and Chanyeol kisses him deeper, harder, passionately. Baekhyun wants to hold into it, to that bang of light he had never seen before. To the feeling of being held and adored.  
They break apart and Baekhyun doesn’t open his eyes.  
“Open your eyes, baby.” Chanyeol says, and the pet name rests on his ears like the finest music. He feels warm all inside, and Baekhyun opens his eyes.  
And he is struck by lightning in a way he never felt before. Air is knocked out of his lungs and he reaches for it, a color he had never seen before coloring all around Chanyeol. Baekhyun looks behind him, at the painting, and all the grey is gone and replaced with all this shade he can’t quite fathom. It’s not blue or red or grey or black or any variation. He doesn’t know what that color is, he knows it’s a color and his eyes are tearing up from how overwhelming it all feels.  
“Are you okay? Baekhyun? Love?”  
Baekhyun looks back at him, startled.  
“Love?” He asks, and Chanyeol nods, smiling.  
“Love.”  
Baekhyun closes the distance between him, resting his head against Chanyeol’s chest.  
“Love.” He replies, tears streaming down his face and staining Chanyeol’s shirt in wet.  
Chanyeol kisses his head with a soft, tender touch, and Baekhyun is too scared to open his eyes again. He wants to see that again, but he’s also too scared to.  
“Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asks, and Chanyeol distances himself a little from him. Baekhyun opens his eyes slowly to look up at him.  
It’s all still there, all of the light, all of the warmth, all of the feeling.  
All of the love.  
“What color do you see?” Baekhyun asks, pointing at the painting behind him.  
Chanyeol looks over quickly and then back at Baekhyun, his eyes now burning in that color Baekhyun didn’t know what to name. Chanyeol cups Baekhyun’s face into his hands, looking at him with absolute devotion, and Baekhyun feels something real close to home hit him. The words of his grandmother resonate all around his head, and another tear streams down his face.  
“Someday, you will find love… And then, my sweet boy, you will see.”  
Chanyeol opens his mouth, and Baekhyun is already crying hard when his lover says it:  
“It’s yellow.”

 

Spoiler alert: Baekhyun finds out the colors of the rainbow after that. He knows which are which and he can definitely tell them apart. Red and blue have always been there, but his favorite is yellow because it’s the color he sees when he looks at Chanyeol.  
All his life was missing was that last primary color. And now he has it - and now, he finally, finally sees it.

 

spoiler 2: Baekhyun changes Chanyeol's contact on his phone to "yellow bf". You know the rest.

**Author's Note:**

> shoutout on the 20th of february to this aquarius i love a lot. happy bday to my best friend and sister
> 
> shoutout to this huge ass exo-l i wrote this to in under two days and still seemed to miss the deadline of "i should have posted this exactly at midnight!" . @sushigom i love you. happy bday sister


End file.
